spur0701

The sabots only work in a rifled barrel, if you have a smooth bore you'll need to use rifled slugs. Be it sabots or rifled slugs if you ask 10 people what the best are you'll get 10 different answers......each shotgun is going to be different and will like different slugs or sabots....just the way it is because of the different variables.I've got two 870s and a Saiga I use for deer, the smoothbore 870 groups best with Winchester Ranger Low Recoil LE 1 oz slugsbut will do well with Bennekes too, and the Saiga likes Bennekes, while the one with a Hastings rifled barrel likes Hornady SST300 grain copper sabots. Opinions differ slighly on therange but for me anything past 75 yards is pushing it for a smoothbore slug while with Sabots with a rifled barrel can be effective to 150 or even 200 yards (but there's a 6 inch drop at 200). Were I you I would buy 3 or 4 boxes of the most popular loads and see which groups best, use that and make sure you stay inside your range limitations. [/align][/align]If you have a smoothbore and need more range you can always upgrade. I got an 870 from the bargin rack at a local gun shop, refinished it with Brownells baking laquer, put a new Choat stock on it, installed a Hastings rifled barrel (on sale from SportmansGuide for $143) with an extended scope mount and threw a Nikon prostaff scope on it, I was going to pin the barrel but it was accurate enough I didn't need to....I can take a deer at 200 yards with it, which is saying something for a shotgun....I live in MD and other than muzzle loader youcan only use a rifle on the Eastern shore.
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